COHOES -- The state has hit owners of Norlite, the state's only commercial hazardous waste incinerator, with a $90,000 fine for violations of air and water pollution rules.

In addition to the fine announced Thursday by the state Department of Environmental Conservation, Norlite must pay another $35,000 for an environmental project to benefit the community near its Route 32 plant.

The DEC penalties are part of a consent order signed May 11 by Norlite President David Carabetta. The action stemmed from state inspections begun after the Times Union requested Norlite pollution records from DEC.

The inspections led to state charges that Norlite was burning an improper mix of hazardous waste. In July, DEC charged the firm with 62 pollution violations under the U.S. Clean Air Act between November 2008 and April 2009.

"Because Norlite's plant is in an urban setting, it is critical that the company adheres to the stringent requirements DEC has in place to protect the public and the environment," said Regional DEC Director Gene Kelly.

His statement said DEC inspections revealed a number of violations. The agency has ordered a 19-point agenda to upgrade equipment, improve the structural integrity of the plant and provide for proper emergency planning.

The consent order does not contain any restrictions on the type of waste that Norlite can burn, but does specify that Norlite cannot burn waste with a higher percentage of solids than its air pollution permit allows.

For the first time since the plant opened in 1955, it will be required to provide DEC with an electronic link to watch over air pollution monitors as it enters two smokestacks, which tower over public housing authority homes and a private residential neighborhood.

The 250-acre Norlite plant is one of only two kilns in the country that makes construction materials -- known as aggregate -- by burning hazardous waste.

An August 2009 story by the Times Union found potentially troubling problems within its air pollution records routinely filed with the DEC.

As part of the state settlement, Norlite must essentially "double-bag" its two 2000-degree kilns by encasing the kilns in containment vessels meant to prevent pollution from leaking out before reaching the stacks.

It was not immediately clear from the DEC what the burning of solids -- which Norlite was found to have done on at least three separate occasions -- meant for air pollution levels.

The state also charged the company failed to replace missing seals designed to reduce air emissions from its kiln; failed to notify the state as required when pollution levels forced the flow of hazardous waste to shut down; had gaps in its data on plant emissions; and dumped pollution into the nearby Salt Kill creek during a July 2009 flood.

"Our facility has been designed to minimize environmental impact, and we are pleased to be able to provide regulators with the most current data available to validate our ongoing efforts," said Norlite Plant Manager Tim Lachell in a statement. "We have also committed to providing the department with electronic access to our monitoring data to ensure the most current data is available to the DEC."

He also said the settlement represented "months of work by both parties on highly technical issues."

In a story published in August, the newspaper's review of two years' of Norlite air pollution records filed with DEC found potentially disturbing trends stemming from the unstable and erratic hodgepodge of waste being burned, which includes PCBs and a host of dangerous chemicals.

From January through April 2009, a Times Union analysis of DEC pollution records found Norlite experienced 43 episodes in which carbon monoxide (CO) emissions exceeded federal safety limits of 100 parts per million. There were 17 similar episodes in 2008, and 16 in 2007.

High CO levels, which can signal incomplete combustion, coupled with high levels of hydrochloric acid, raise concerns that dioxins, a highly toxic material, could be forming, according to experts.

The DEC consent order makes no mention of carbon dioxide, chlorine or dioxin.

Since 1995, Norlite has been owned by Meriden, Conn.-based United Oil Recovery, a privately held corporation that also owns seven hazardous waste collection centers in Connecticut, Massachusetts and New Hampshire.

Norlite is paid by industrial customers from as far away as Ohio, Maine, Maryland and Delaware that truck in waste, which is pumped into storage tanks. Waste is then blended before being sent through pipes to the kilns' burners.